CSUN University News Clippings

First furloughs scheduled at CSUS

(August 4, 2009)

By Laurel Rosenhall

Staff and managers at Sacramento State will begin taking unpaid days off this week in the first phase of a one-year furlough plan at the university that will reduce employees’ salary by 10 percent.

Campus leaders have designated this Friday and next Friday, Aug. 14, as the first two furlough days at California State University, Sacramento.

Most offices will be closed, but summer classes will be held and previously scheduled conferences will continue.

The furlough plan for professors hasn’t been finalized. Most won’t be taking furlough days this month because they are on summer vacation.

“Most of our faculty are not back until the end of this month so their furlough program will kick off in September,” said David Wagner, vice president of human resources.

Wagner said he is working with labor unions and the state chancellor’s office to create campuswide furlough plans for the rest of the year.

One scheduling difficulty is that the union representing support staff wants most of the 24 furlough days to be assigned for the whole campus, Wagner said, while the faculty union wants most days to be determined by individual professors and their supervisors.

Staff want the days set in advance so they can plan accordingly, said Kim Harrington, a staff member who is president of the campus chapter of the CSU Employees Union.

“This not knowing is the problem,” she said. “We need the long-range plan for our folks.”

Many Sac State employees are married to state workers, Harrington said, so they would like the university’s furlough days to synch up with furlough days for state workers.

“Reducing their overall costs would be very helpful,” she said.

Professors, on the other hand, seek more flexibility in when they take their unpaid days off.

“For a faculty member, if the campus closes down you’re still working because you’re still grading papers, or doing research, or preparing for class,” said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association.

“Having some kind of flexibility was really vital if (professors’) workload was going to be matched by the 10 percent cut in pay.”

Taiz said many CSU campuses may end up creating different furlough schedules for staff and faculty.

Publication: Sacramento Bee